Solar Beautyfying in Sydney

According to many people, UTS Tower is Sydney's ugliest building - it even won that distinction in a poll ran by The Sydney Morning Herlad. However, an initiative by the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) could soon metamorphose the notorious edifice into a stunning marvel.

LAVA's proposed ‘Tower Skin’ concept would wrap the building with a lightweight composite mesh textile. The cocooned shell would then collect rain water, generate electricity and assist the ventilation system in cooling the tower. At night, the skin works as an intelligent media surface that communicates information on events in real time. This Enviroskin covering is in essence a photovoltaic surface that not only would make the tower more aesthetically pleasing, but also reduce its overall carbon footprint.



While the finished project might not look as fantastic as the concept, this certainly offers insights on what cities might be able to do in order to improve the environmental friendliness of some of their older buildings. The endless rows of prefabricated concrete structures that dot many former communist cities seem as prime candidates.